Built by Harland and Wolff in 1954. Served P&O until 1972 when broken up at kaohsiung.

Doug Rogers

15th October 2004, 02:51

Built by Harland and Wolff in 1954. Served P&O until 1972 when broken up at kaohsiung.

Never quite as good as her sister Arcadia which came from another yard. Arcadia just seemed to soldier on but Iberia seemed to thrive on various engine problems. I dont think I can ever recall anything hull wise about Iberia but I think she even had a stabiliser problems when they were fitted. She was withdrawn prematurely but of course before very long the price of oil forced the withdrawal of so many of that era. Cheers..Doug

R58484956

3rd June 2005, 17:05

stood by building of Iberia and sailed on maiden voyage as an engineer. Supposed to make 700 tons of fresh water a day, we made none. H & W had put blanks in drain line from evaporators, took us about 3 weeks to find problem and then only by chance. Burnt out preheaters whilst still in Belfast. Main gearbox sight glass replaced 10 times in 2 days, starting with an apprentice and moving right up to senior managers, the faces were not machined square. Every valve in engine room was marked inlet and outlet,
but not was inside it eg salt water/ fresh water etc All v/vs renamed when we arrived Tilbury.

James_C

3rd June 2005, 17:19

H&W seemed to be renowned for stuff like that. We had two ships built there in the early 80s (tankers), naturally with tankers, especially crude ships, they tend to always have a stern trim. So where were the plugholes in the showers? Yup, you've guessed it, at the forward end!
All the bunks were arranged so that those in the forward side of the accommodation had the pillow end aft, so if you weren't on the ball with enough pillows, your feet would be higher than your head.

R58484956

4th June 2005, 15:16

Enginers dined in 1st class salon, beside our table was asmall panel with a green light,if ER emergency bell went, green light came on and you left saloon casually.
Tables laid for dinner for about 600 people , green light goes on ship turns 180 degrees at full speed, 600 table places all go crahing onto deck. Man overboard was the reason. Check made of passengers and crew, nobody missing, apparently someone had seen a deckchair go over the side and thought it might have been a person.
Most expensive deck chair in history!!

stay

1st April 2006, 21:37

Someone recently submitted 3 photos of the damage sustained by the Iberia after her collision 27/03/1956 with the "Stanvac Pretoria" off Colombo, Sri-Lanka.

http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/PO_Iberia_1954.html
(Note that they incorrectly state it occurred off Columbia.)

My dad was electrician on the Pretoria at the time. The impact knocked him clean out of his bunk, as it occurred in the wee hours of the morning. :)

The collision is logged in the Encyclopaedia Peninsular history for the Iberia ...
http://portal.pohub.com/pls/pogprtl/poghistory.display_document.pdf?p_id=1235 (Adobe Reader .pdf)
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:portal.pohub.com/pls/pogprtl/poghistory.display_document.pdf%3Fp_id%3D1235 (As a web page)

A decent photo of the Pretoria appeared recently on the http://riversea.tugtalk.co.uk website.
http://riversea.tugtalk.co.uk/memories/stanvacpretoria1950.htm

claudio

2nd April 2006, 04:15

have a look at my pictures under claudio i have a travel agents model of iberia it has lights inside got it for 120 dollars about 10 yrs ago it was just sitting on this ladies front veranda

methc

1st June 2007, 15:40

Someone recently submitted 3 photos of the damage sustained by the Iberia after her collision 27/03/1956 with the "Stanvac Pretoria" off Colombo, Sri-Lanka.

http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/PO_Iberia_1954.html
(Note that they incorrectly state it occurred off Columbia.)

My dad was electrician on the Pretoria at the time. The impact knocked him clean out of his bunk, as it occurred in the wee hours of the morning. :)

The collision is logged in the Encyclopaedia Peninsular history for the Iberia ...
http://portal.pohub.com/pls/pogprtl/poghistory.display_document.pdf?p_id=1235 (Adobe Reader .pdf)
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:portal.pohub.com/pls/pogprtl/poghistory.display_document.pdf%3Fp_id%3D1235 (As a web page)

A decent photo of the Pretoria appeared recently on the http://riversea.tugtalk.co.uk website.
http://riversea.tugtalk.co.uk/memories/stanvacpretoria1950.htm
Hello,
Whoever wrote that the collision occurred in heavy seas has got it all wrong and there was no ramming! The weather was calm, it was a very clear night as the Stanvac Pretoria was first sighted at about 21 miles distance at the change of watch shortly before midnight. The collision occurred 300 miles West of Colombo at 0043 because the tanker turned to port at almost the same time as the Iberia turned to starboard in order to pass under the tanker's stern. The collision was a glancing blow, the flare of the tanker's bow hit the hull at a small angle and the starboard bridge wing did the damage to the upper open decks. As a result of the order by the ER telegraph to alter the starboard turbine from Full ahead (21.5 knots) to Full astern without warning a lot of damage was done to the turbine's blading. Although some repairs were made in Sydney there was a continuing problem forcing a repair stop in Valetta Harbour, Malta on the way back to Tilbury.
I shall post other pictures in the gallery/passenger ships folder.

I was the 3rd Officer -- on the 4-8 watch!

R58484956

1st June 2007, 18:45

Methc thank you for your comment on Iberia, A ship I sailed on, I can imagine the panic when told full ahead to full astern with no stand by in between, turbines do not like that, nor do engineers.

stay

3rd July 2007, 23:15

Hello,
Whoever wrote that the collision occurred in heavy seas has got it all wrong and there was no ramming! The weather was calm, it was a very clear night as the Stanvac Pretoria was first sighted at about 21 miles distance at the change of watch shortly before midnight.

My dad made exactly the same comment upon reading that account last year.
In his own words, conditions were "Flat-Calm".

Interesting that even after 51 years, quite a few of the people involved at the time are still around to give their own account of the facts, often challenging official one.
I suppose thats validation enough in itself of the existence of sites like Ships Nostalgia. :)

Auke Visser's Esso & Related Tankers site has some photos of both vessels after the collision here http://visseraa.topcities.com/others/id565.htm

sparkie2182

3rd July 2007, 23:32

interesting stuff............specially the h and w shortfalls

Earthmover

24th July 2008, 09:44

Served on Iberia 1962 in platehouse. funnily I really enjoyed that. better than being a winger flying about with a tray as fast as you could go.

Cisco

24th July 2008, 10:32

My dad made exactly the same comment upon reading that account last year.
In his own words, conditions were "Flat-Calm".

Interesting that even after 51 years, quite a few of the people involved at the time are still around to give their own account of the facts, often challenging official one.http://visseraa.topcities.com/others/id565.htm

I think the 'Official' version is nothing more than face saving propaganda that was put about by P&O..

My father was master of the Stanvac Pretoria at the time of the collision..the photos of damage to her over at the Auke Visser site come from his collection.

Facts of the matter as I understand it were that Iberia was the overtaking and thus the 'give way' ship. Seems it was down to poor watchkeeping on Iberia...failure to watch the bearing... belief that overtaken ship was not going as fast as it actually was.. Iberia was just struck a glancing blow by the Stbd bow of the S/V Pretoria.. there was no damage to the bridge wing of tanker , this can be clearly seen in the pics.

Earthmover

24th July 2008, 10:58

Was on Iberia when she went the wrong side of a buoy 1962 doing a 5 month round the world trip (I think it was Bombay. ) and bent a propeller hell of a lot of shuddering whilst under steam,
we had to dry dock at Sydney and I had a look underneath her. October/November we were all playing cards one afternoon when suddenly she heeled over and things went flying so we all ran on deck and it was a US Navy Battlegroup on their way to Cuba nothing stopped them. I remember reading the news sheet about the Russian missiles and the US blockade, Funny really Because now US want to put Missiles in Eastern Europe, and think the Russians are out of order because they are complaining.

dickberridge

22nd March 2009, 16:14

I served as 2nd lecci on Iberia for the round the world voyage July to October 1967. I am trying to organise my personal history and photos but have lost the itenerary. Can anyone help please?
Thanks in anticipation
R Berridge